The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt
This is the first book in the Priscilla Hutchins or the Academy series. I came upon Deepsix, which I believe is the third in the series, and started out with that, not realizing it was a series. Deepsix was really enjoyable, made me want to read more. So I went on Paperbackswap.com and found the others in the series. This first book in the series did not disappoint, and I look forward to reading the others in order!
These are set in the not too distant future, where space travel has become a common thing, and the people of earth have started exploring other planets, looking for those that might be able to hold life and be terraformed, because the Earth is becoming volatile, with wars, famines, massive storms destroying everything. They have found one planet with intelligent life, but it is not advanced beyond Earth's 19th century. Other planets have been found with life, but not intelligent. But there are a few planets that have been found where there were once civilizations, but they have been extinct for thousands of years, and what's interesting is that each one has some kind of geometric structure on a moon, and on the planet itself, a sculpture of some being, which is the same sculpture and same being, placed on each planet.
So the Academy has set up archeologists and scientists on these planets to try and solve the mystery of who these beings are and what has happened on the planets.
Priscilla Hutchins, or Hutch, is a pilot transporting people and supplies to and from these places, and she is called to one where a large temple has been found with plenty of artifacts. The scientists are sure they are about to discover something big, like a Rosetta stone, which will make it easier to translate the writing, but this planet will begin terraforming very soon, with large chunks of ice being dropped in from the sky to raise the water levels. Everyone needs to be evacuated before it begins, because everything will soon be underwater.
What happens next, I won't say, just in case you want to read it, but be sure, nothing goes according to plan, and it's up to Hutch and her team to solve the mystery and perhaps even save the Earth.
